


Legacy

by alafaye



Category: Marvel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 17:31:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4530807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alafaye/pseuds/alafaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky gets to decide now what his legacy is going to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Legacy

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a fill [here](https://such-heights.dreamwidth.org/459287.html?thread=8380951#cmt8380951) at a MCU kissing meme. The prompt was Tony/Bucky, legacy.

Legacy. The word kept bouncing around his head, a damn loop. It meant something--and nothing good at that--but he couldn't figure out what. Steve knew, he was sure. Bucky had mentioned it once, just once, and Steve had closed up faster than a clam. Natasha knew, but she'd looked at Steve and wouldn't say anything.

Tony was the tech guy for the Avengers, mostly, so he would be easily the best person to ask having access to the files quickly, but...Bucky wasn't sure. There was something there. Tony had fixed his arm, let Bucky have room in the Tower with the others, but there was something that kept Tony at a distance.

"You are authorized to enter the shop," Jarvis said quietly, his voice coming only from the speaker by the shop door. He could be tactful when he wanted to.

Bucky stopped drumming his fingers on his thigh. "Tony knows I'm out here, yeah?"

"He does not," Jarvis admitted. "He has not programmed me to announce every visitor. You could leave if wish to."

Bucky took a deep breath. "Any reason he's scared of me?"

Jarvis was quiet for a long moment. "I cannot tell you, sir. I must respect Sir's privacy."

Shit. That meant only one thing.

Bucky turned around and left without getting answers.

~~~

Bucky started when a tumbler appeared in the corner of his eye. He glared at the person holding it and Tony frowned at him. "Bad night?"

"Why else am I sitting in the dark on top of your freakily tall tower?" Bucky bit out. 

Tony shrugged. "House full of nuts. Clint comes out just to watch things. Or shoot pigeons. Depends. Scotch?"

"Can't get drunk," Bucky said wearily, but he took the drink. He missed getting drunk. Not the hangover part, no, but the hazy forgetting part? Yeah, that he missed. Still, it would feel nice going down. "Thanks."

"Welcome." Tony stayed there.

Bucky waited. People, but especially people like Tony, hated the silence and would fill it up pretty quickly and if Tony had come out for a reason, he'd soon spill why.

"Look, Jarvis told me you asked and I figure the least I could do is be honest," Tony said quietly. "Honesty is good. At least that's Pepper says. And Sam."

"Sam's smart like that," Bucky agreed.

"Painfully so, but yeah," Tony sighed. "The winter soldier killed my parents."

Bucky froze. He'd started remembering Howard, remembered his quick laugh and darker nights--they'd shared many a drink in the dark. The sheer genius, the utter brilliancy. It was no wonder really that Hydra would want him out of the game, but shit. Out like a candle.

"Don't apologize," Tony carried on. "It wasn't you. I just think you ought to know since Jarvis said you asked. I figure you asked either because you remembered or you wanted to ask something but got fed up with the distance that might keep you from asking the question. Or keep me from answering. So, I admitted what my issue was. Well, one of them. Now it's your turn."

"House full of nuts and you're the craziest," Bucky said.

"It's why my name is on the building. Or it used to be anyway."

Bucky sighed. "It wasn't...the question wasn't deep or personal or something like that. But Steve won't tell me and I'm still locked out of my own file. I know, for good reason, shut up. I just want to know why I keep hearing legacy on a loop in my head."

Tony huffed. "That's it? That's all you want to know?" Bucky nodded. Tony sat on the concrete, dangling his legs off the edge like Bucky had. "I'm surprised you can't figure it out. You were Zola's legacy, his gift to Hydra, to the world. They used you as part of their effort to force humanity to a position where it will compromise it's self, it's identity, it's privacy in exchange for Hydra's idea of security. The winter soldier programming was a legacy. You probably heard the scientists and officers talk about you like that, as Zola's legacy."

Bucky's shoulders slumped and he tossed back the whole glass of scotch. "Fuck."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a while. Bucky thought about the past, the person he had been and the person he had been made into. Thought about the kind of person he was now.

"I used to...well, it ain't a legacy, but I had a bit of a name back in Brooklyn."

"Carried to the front or so I heard from the old man," Tony said with a sly grin.

Bucky chuckled. "Me and Howard, coming back from leave. Smelling like a bar and girls."

"Good times?"

Bucky looked at him sideways. "Seems unfair to you, that you got stuck with nothing but bad memories and you should have had the good ones."

Tony tossed back his scotch. "Shit happens."

"I brought it up only because I think I know what kind of legacy I want to leave."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? What's that?"

Bucky planted a deep kiss on him, deep enough to leave Tony panting when it broke. "As Captain America's partner, the heart breaker." He winked.

Tony's laugh followed him inside.


End file.
